************ Not sure why the whole formatting is weird with the pictures but sorry! I can’t fix them! 🙁

Tomorrow’s my first day of school!! Exciting! Maybe … my first class is Finance and I already want to throw up knowing that.

I never knew how many blogs I’ve been following until these last few days. Given a handful are Tumblrs, therefore they update constantly, but even without those, I have 50+ unread posts every time I open my Google Reader. And I log in at least twice a day now.

Anyway, I’ve been busy catching up on blog posts and I’m loving each and everyone of them! Yes, I read them all!! Not much of the Tumblrs though because there are SO much pictures but blog posts, check!

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Today, I woke up at 7am, showered, got ready, and headed on campus. It was our second day of FTK Leadership Challenge Retreat!!

I got to school by 7:45am. In hand was my OOIAJ … just in case the breakfast they serve was not good enough.

Luckily they served breakfast tacos from Bill Miller’s. Mmm … I ate my OOIAJ (because who wastes such good food! plus I’m pretty sure it’s better for me). I couldn’t resist though so I took one Potato, Egg, and Cheese taco. They did a horrible job on wrapping these babies with cheese everywhere. Gross to cheese like that but mmmm to the potato.

 

 

 

 

We then headed into our room and sat in a circle and had reflection.

They gave us a notebook they had made filled with blank papers. They were even personalized with our names!! I covered up my last name.

This is where we write about our thoughts and answer questions that have been asked. And anything else we want to reflect about goes into there.

Questions such as: What gives you spirit? What would or does kill your spirit? What other questions are on your mind? etc. etc.

The title to this post The Front Porch goes along with something we learned today. I’m not going to bore y’all with it but seriously, I love the saying and would love to incorporate that into my home in the future.

Then went into little groups and listened to lectures.

I love when they print out all the slides so I know how close we are to the end.

Is that terrible? Whoops.

One of the advisors for Leadership Challenge/FTK co-wrote a book with a friend of his about leadership.

He gave us our own copy to keep and read if we liked. And he even autographed it!! How sweet!!

I for sure will add this to my list of reading materials.

Why not?

For lunch, they ordered us Papa John’s. Not too healthy but what can you do? Free food is free food. I made sure to pick the ones with the most vegetables! That has to count for something right?

I learned a lot from those 7+ hours of retreat today. Though it was long I can pertain everything I learned to real life things. Stuff like running and staying healthy. It’s going to be a long journey to find my balance with those things and other things in life, but if I sit down and really think about the path I lead and plan it out, I can get there. Slowly but eventually.

I learned so much more, but I won’t bore y’all.

I just really want to remember this day that gave me great memories. I cannot wait to work with everyone to make a difference.

FTK: For The Kids Dance Marathon at UTSA with pediatric cancer. Together we can make a difference. (Cheesy words? … But so true!)

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Time to relax … then bed. I’ll let you all know how it goes sometime this week. Peace and love!

I purposely did not schedule anything today so that I can have some me time.

I started the day with a Green Tea Frappuccino, no whip of course. Mmm … so freaking good in this hot weather.

During Amanda’s birthday, my purse broke. Whomp … it was the first purse I picked out and paid for myself so i was sad to see it go.

So I went out and bought myself a new one at Kohl’s.

Where I went out and bought a couple tank tops that I can wear with a cardigan.

Since Office Depot was right next door, I went on a prowl for a new planner for the academic year. Hopefully, this one works … I can never find one I truly love.

*****EDIT*****

It didn’t work out. The one I bought had the dates all incorrectly put together. They let me exchange it for this one instead. Fingers crossed.

*****END EDIT******

Then I had a very unhealthy meal. I started feeling sick and threw more than half of it away.

Me time = best time.

Cate, Katie, Jill, Amanda, Ashley, Gretchen, Me

All the girls dressed up for Amanda’s birthday celebration Friday. If you knew me, you would know all I wear out is jeans, jeans, jeans with exception to some sweatpants and basketball shorts. So skirts and dresses are a bit foreign to me.

She asked if I would wear a skirt so, I agreed … and wore them without tights for the first time since I was a kid. And thank goodness I did since it was so hot and humid out.

Her Nana drove Amanda and me to Town and Center where we went to different places but stayed the longest at Loggia. We danced a lot and got hit on by creepy men. Sounds eventful, huh?

In San Antonio, Mum never knew how late I was out but in Houston, this was the first time. Amanda’s Mum got us two hotel rooms at the Marriott right in Town Center so we didn’t have to drive home after drinking. So very thoughtful. I’ve never got to do sleepovers before so this was definitely a night of firsts.

I finally fell asleep around 4:45 am and woke up every hour after starting at 8 am. Finally when 11 am came around, we huddle in bed together to talk about what happened the night before. Funny stories we’ll remember for a long time.

When her Mum came to pick us up, she treated us to Starbucks. So freaking sweet. I didn’t get home til 4pm on Saturday. So crazy.

Sunday, Sissy wanted me to go to check out her new apartment. All I did whenI got there was what I always do: read blogs and watch Netflix. I even took a 30-minute nap.

I have lunch dates and hangouts set up all week. I’m excited for them but know that each time I go to something, I’m one day closer to the end of summer.

Let’s raise a glass to the bitter end
Farewell to old friends
Will you be the same when we see you again

-Dixie Chicks, Bitter End

I had last Friday off so Sissy and I spent some time together. We went to eat at Cheddar’s before heading to Walmart to buy some things.

Then we came home and she wanted a new profile picture for her Facebook so we took a bunch. I’m well aware our family lives in like the freaking jungle. So many plants that you can’t even see in our backyard.

Then I went out to celebrate Nicole getting her first job ever!! A teaching job right here in Katy! So proud of her. Nicole, Michelle, Rachael, and I met at Otis (?) first because Rachael was hungry. Then Nicole, Michelle, and I headed to Baker’s Street.

We talked about a lot of things which will leave me scarred for a little while. I can’t share the details because they’re all personal but … let’s just say I’m educated. If you can guess what we talked about I’ll give you a cookie.

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Today was my farewell party. One summer has passed and it was time to move on to my last year of college.

My team here do it B-I-G. An invite to everyone on the team or anyone I might know to come to my party. Cake, gift giving, and speeches.

They made me take home the remainder of the chocolate and vanilla marble cake. The flowers look blue but it was actually purple. Preeety! There were two more flowers at the bottom but two of the men boys swiped them because they love frosting. Weirdos. It’s kinda cute.

Cute little gift bag. $25 gift card and Twix bar. Cute little card. Signatures. I felt very loved. So dang shy and kept saying “Thank you.”

I am very blessed to have worked with them for 5 summers and one winter. It has been a great experience.

Then I ran home and had my phone conference with FTK. I am so excited for this year. It is going to be A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!

To give thanks to the co-workers, I went to H-E-B to buy some ingredients. I just finished making two desserts to bring tomorrow. I’ll share with you the recipes soon!

Going off to blog read and Prison Break.

One day of work left then my one week of summer starts.